New Kingdom Hearts in Development

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Tetsuya Nomura plans another release this year.

By Anoop Gantayat

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep hits the English speaking world this summer. But it's been out in Japan since January, and Japanese players are asking what's next. Series mastermind Tetsuya Nomura has been responding.

In an interview featured in Japan's just-released Birth by Sleep "Ultimania" guide book, summarized at Square Enix fan site FF Renion, Nomura made mention of not one, but three new Kingdom Hearts games.

The first, and clearly foremost, is Kingdom Hearts III. Nomura said that development on this title is dependent on Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Nomura is directing Versus XIII.

As for the other two titles, one will be released this year. The other will be released next year or beyond and will feature multiple main characters, presumably akin to Birth by Sleep's tio of heroes. At least one of these titles has gone into production already.

Nomura also made some comments about the English version of Birth by Sleep. Mostly, he reiterated some of the improvements he's mentioned in the past, including battle balance adjustments, additional Keyblades and enemies, additional songs for the game's rhythm mini game, and changes to event scenes.

But the biggest news is what Nomura said wouldn't happen. Following Kingdom Hearts 2's English release, Square Enix produced a 3D remake of Game Boy Advance's Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, bundled it with the international version of KH2, and released the package to Japan as Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix +. While not ruling out a Birth by Sleep re-release for Japan, Nomura said that there'd be no major production along the lines of the Chain of Memories remake. If you were hoping for a high spec version of DS's 358/2 Days, you can probably stop hoping.